The Crisis of Liberal Democracy Poli 110DA 06 The logic of the political.

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The Crisis of Liberal Democracy Poli 110DA 06 The logic of the political

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One could test all theories of state and political ideas according to their anthropology and thereby classify these as to whether they consciously or unconsciously presuppose to be by nature evil or by nature good. – the question whether man is a dangerous being or not, a risky or a harmless creature. (58)

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[T]he antagonism between the so-called authoritarian and anarchist theories can be traced to these formulas. (60) – All truly political theories recognize man as evil, dangerous

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Ingenuous anarchism reveals that the belief in the natural goodness of man is closely tied to the radical denial of state and government. One follows from the other, and both foment each other. (60) In a good world among good people, only peace, security, and harmony prevail. Priests and theologians are just as superfluous as politicians and statesmen. (65)

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It follows according to the anarchist method that only individuals who consider men to be evil are evil. Those who consider him good, namely, the anarchists, are then entitled to some sort of superiority or control over the evil ones. The problem thus begins anew.

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A part of the theories and postulates which presupposes man to be good is liberal. Without being actually anarchist they are polemically directed against the intervention of the state. (60)

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Although liberalism has not radically denied the state, it has, on the other hand, neither advanced a positive theory of the state nor on its own discovered how to reform the state, but has only attempted to tie the political to the ethical and to subjugate it to economics. It has produced a doctrine of the separation and balance of powers, i.e., a system of checks and balances and controls of state and government. This cannot be characterized as either a theory of state or a basic political principle. (61) – Liberalism is anti-political

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The systematic theory of liberalism concerns almost solely the internal struggle against the power of the state. (70) – Purely individualistic, all I no us – Thus, no recognition of the enemy. For the individual as such, there is no enemy with whom he must enter into a life-or-death struggle if he personally does not want to do so. To compel him to fight against his will is, from the viewpoint of the private individual, lack of freedom and repression. (71)

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We thus arrive at an entire system of demilitarized and depoliticized concepts. – Liberlism attempts to substitute economic competition and intellectual discussion for real conflict When confronted with the choice of Christ or Barabbas?, liberalism responds with a proposal to adjourn or appoint a committee of investigation. – Political Theology

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The bourgeois liberal is an individual who does not want to leave the apolitical riskless private sphere. – Politics should not become serious – The inherent enmity that marks politics is too dangerous, the political world should be made safe

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But politics cannot be suppressed, the friend/enemy distinction will exist as long as fighting collectivities of people exist, as long as they perceive in one another the possibility of an existential threat. The liberal project to suppress politics has two potentially negative consequences – 1. Failure to recognize the enemy and thus ceasing to exist, or – 2. Failure to understand political realities and speaking in terms of universal human rights leads ironically the intensification of enmity and political conflict

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1. The incapacity or the unwillingness to make [the friend/enemy distinction] is a symptom of the political end. The doomed classes of Russia and France who had romanticized the peasants or sentimentalized man who is by nature good. (68) Enemies remain enemies whether or not they are recognized Liberal polities must then either cease to exist or violate their own claims

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2. Humanity as such cannot wage war because it has no enemy, at least on this planet. The concept of humanity excludes the concept of the enemy, because the enemy does not cease to be a human being... That wars are waged in the name of humanity is not a contradiction of this simple truth; quite the contrary, it has an especially intensive political meaning.

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When a state fights its political enemy in the name of humanity, it is not a war for the sake of humanity, but a war wherein a particular state seeks to usurp a universal concept against its military opponent. At the expense of its opponent, it tries to identify itself with humanity in the same way as one can misuse peace, justice, progress, and civilization in order to claim these as ones own and to deny the same to the enemy. (54)

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Whoever invokes humanity wants to cheat. To confiscate the word humanity, to invoke and monopolize such a term probably has certain incalculable effects, such as denying the enemy the quality of being human and declaring him to be an outlaw of humanity; and a war can thereby be driven to the most extreme inhumanity. (54)

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This transcends the limits of the political framework, it makes of the enemy a monster that must not only be defeated but also utterly destroyed. In other words, he is an enemy who no longer must be compelled to retreat into his own borders only. (36) – No existential threat to a state necessary for enmity Slavery Regime change

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The League of Nations, then, is not a league of all humanity, but an alliance of victorious nations which may legitimate wars in new, previously impossible, ways. (56)

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How did liberalism acquire its arsenal of universalist conceptual weapons? An accident of history (75)

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But, rather than a single entity, these were in fact diverse interests (philosophers, business interests, politicians) united by their enemy, absolutist monarchy. Wars are begun for reasons of economics, technology and industry produce weapons that make ware increasingly destructive, liberal ideals lead to crusades (76-79)

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This allegedly non-political and apparently even antipolitical system serves existing or newly emerging friend-and-enemy groupings and cannot escape the logic of the political. (79)